FaLLen
Dear reader,
I haven't written anything for this fic in two years. I don't remember where the plot was going, or even where the next chapter was going but I'm updating because people have been nagging me for it recently. I hope you'll enjoy it, no matter how it turns out. I'm a more mature writer now so I have high hopes. These chapters will probably be brief to keep the style I started with. Thank you so much for your feedback since I've joined this site. This is just for you! Please keep sending reviews and check out my other works.
Love Mirelle.
Chapter 3 – X-Japan
Katrin felt that the dark grey kimono suited her well. She was doing her best not to fall asleep next to L on the jet but her freshly-cleaned eyelids were drooping. Her head nodded forwards before long and soon she was snoring loudly against the detective's shoulder. L's eyes widened in discomfort and he looked over to his elderly companion for reassurance, but Watari just smiled in amusement.
L sat stiffly while Katrin's arms unconsciously wrapped around him. He gently licked a lollipop, trying not to look at his bizarre guest. Everything about her threw him off. She was female, for one, and her sudden appearance, knowledge, everything was strange. His mind was in overdrive, hindered by his quiet excitement at returning to Japan.
He could not figure her out. The best thing to do, he deduced, would be to keep a very close eye on her.
"Watari, will you pass me a microphone from inside my case?" he asked, as softly as he could so as not to wake her. Watari obliged silently, nodding his approval at L's caution. Delicately, the detective slipped a hand inside the folds of the kimono and attached the minuscule microphone. As he removed his hand, Katrin stirred.
"Are we close to Tokyo yet?" she murmured, eyes still shut.
"No," L whispered, wrapping his tongue back around his lollipop. She lifted her head up and seemed to wake properly. She snapped into an upright position, her pale cheeks brightening with what L assumed to be embarrassment.
Katrin folded her hands in her lap and sat far away from L. Had she really been sleeping on him? How embarrassing! The character she had grown to love after several years of watching those movies and reading those books and she had fallen asleep on him.
She kept her eyes on the window, anticipating the first time she would get to see Tokyo. Tokyo, a city Katrin-Blue Coulton had staked her whole life on reaching. The performing arts course would lead to acting jobs which would lead to travelling and money … enough to reach that city that set her heart thumping. All it took was falling into her TV. But she'd really thought that when she fell asleep just now she would wake up back in her living room. That she hadn't, it was making her mind race. Perhaps this wasn't a dream after all.
When Japan finally did come into view, she could hardly contain her excitement, but kept a poker-face for the sake of retaining a cool image of the detective-Katrin she had created.
"Pinch me," she muttered, reflexively. There was a sharp pain on her arm. "Ow!"
L offered her an unreadable smile as he withdrew his long fingers. Katrin was sure he was making fun of her.
He turned serious, suddenly. It made Katrin uneasy, how quickly he could go from one expression to the next, from full-of-emotion to blank.
"I am assigning you the code letter 'X'. You will use this if you are communicating with the police via the internet. Use the false name 'Tsukiko' if you must speak to anyone outside of headquarters. Never reveal your face to anyone. Do you understand?"
Katrin nodded. Her heart was racing, and with every beat it was saying "this is real, he is real, we're in Tokyo, the Death Note is real."
Light Yagami was real. Ryuk was real. She knew everything about them and where they would be and what they would do. Her mind was reeling, but she was forming a plan.
"Don't expect me to stay in headquarters all the time. In exchange for my co-operation as a detective, I want freedom to come and go as I please."
L hesitated. "Very well."
He was still exploring the possibility that she wasn't on his side, she realised, with a stab of hurt. But if she was in his shoes, she would have done the same thing.
Katrin's heart did not slow for the whole journey to headquarters, a hotel in the centre of Tokyo. She wanted to go shopping in Shibuya and watch people dressed wonderfully in Harajuku but there was no chance to do that yet. It was the middle of the night, for one thing. For another, she didn't have any money.
In the car, Katrin turned to L, whose eyes glowed black in the darkness. His presence was disarming, something Katrin never experienced from him until he was physically beside her. He had the presence of a ruler, an emperor who knew he was more important than everyone else.
"I don't have any money," she admitted, after a deep breath.
"I have plenty. Use mine," he returned, without expression. Katrin felt annoyance building up at his lack of interest. After a minute of silence, she snapped.
"It's really difficult to hold a conversation with you."
L didn't reply. With a grunt of frustration, Katrin gave up and they spent the rest of the journey in silence.
Katrin woke early in the hotel that served as 'headquarters'. The sun was just coming up through the windows. She could hardly believe it when she looked out of them and saw a familiar landscape – Tokyo – and it took a few moments to sink in that she was really where she was. Her thoughts jumped to her parents; that they wouldn't worry where she was, but then she remembered the fight they had had before she had been pulled into this world. It took a lot of strength to blink away the sudden, hot tears.
After pulling herself together, the young woman dressed herself in the grey kimono that Watari had washed when they had arrived at the hotel. It smelt of vanilla and fresh air.
L was in the main sitting room, perching like a crow on the edge of a chair, his head dropped in his arms in sleep. Katrin felt a twinge of panic. L never slept.
She caught hold of his arm and shook him gently. His head rolled to one side, his eyes, which were rimmed with black bruises, opening slowly.
"Hm?" The noise made goose-bumps on Katrin's arms. As innocent as the noise was …
"S-sorry," she mumbled, "I was just worried. I'm sorry I woke you."
He sat up anyway, and stretched his back. Katrin heard his spine click sickeningly.
"Will you go out today?" he asked. She nodded silently. "Take some money and don't get lost," he added, nodding to a cupboard by the windows.
"Thanks," Katrin responded.
"Don't use your real name while you're out," L reminded her.
Katrin smiled to herself. If she could find Light Yagami, there was no way she was going to tell him her real name.
"Don't worry, Ryuzaki."
